COMMENTARY BY

Michelle Malkin is a columnist for The Daily Signal, senior editor at Conservative Review, a best-selling author, and Fox News contributor.

Is it any wonder that American news consumers are at the end of their ropes of patience with the “mainstream media”?

Three weeks ago, when I first documented troubling questions, contradictions, and doubts about Trump-hating, attention-craving actor Jussie Smollett’s absurd hate crime claims, few in the “professional” journalism herd paid heed. Now, with a grand jury investigation on the horizon, everyone’s a Johnny-come-lately debunker.

And everyone’s making excuses: How could we have known? Why would anyone lie about racism? What could have possibly prepared us for such a scandalous swindle?

I’m especially looking at you, Robin Roberts. You and ABC’s “Good Morning America” willingly played public relations agents for Smollett last week while his story was already falling apart and he refused to be fully transparent with investigators. Now, you defend yourselves by hiding behind a veil of ignorance about hate crimes hoaxes.

The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >>

Listen and learn, addled enablers of fraud. Fake Noose is a sick phenomenon that has run rampant across the country unchecked. I’ve chronicled the self-victimization pathology in my books, columns, and blog posts for years:

—Columbia University, 2007. Remember black psychology professor Madonna Constantine? She made the rounds on none other than ABC’s “Good Morning America,” claiming she found a “degrading” noose (made of hand-tied twine) hanging from her office door.

Constantine led fist-waving protests, decried “systematic racism,” and prompted a nationwide uproar, as I reported at the time in the New York Post.

Things didn’t add up when Columbia initially blocked investigators from obtaining 56 hours of surveillance video. No culprits could be found on the militantly progressive campus obsessed with diversity and multiculturalism.

It turned out that Constantine was desperately trying to distract from a brewing internal probe of her serial plagiarism, for which she was eventually fired. The hate crime probe hit a dead end and Constantine faced no criminal charges over the Fake Noose incident.

—Baltimore Fire Department, 2007. Another manufactured outrage erupted when black firefighter-paramedic apprentice Donald Maynard claimed he found a knotted rope and threatening note with a noose drawing on it at his stationhouse. A federal civil rights investigation ensued and the NAACP cried racism—until Maynard confessed to the noose nonsense amid a department-wide cheating scandal.

A top official revealed that Maynard admitted “conducting a scheme meant to create the perception that members within our department were acting in a discriminatory and unprofessional manner.” Maynard faced no criminal charges over the Fake Noose incident.

—University of Delaware, 2015. Black Lives Matter agitators and campus activists triggered a full alert when a student spotted a “racist display” of three “noose-like objects” hanging from trees. The university president called it “deplorable;” protesters wept that they were not being taken seriously. After investigating, police discovered the “nooses” were metal “remnants of paper lanterns” hung as decorations during an alumni weekend celebration.

—Salisbury State University, 2016. Students, faculty, and administrators were horrified when a stick figure hanging from a noose on a whiteboard was discovered at the school’s library. The N-word and the hashtag #WhitePower also appeared in the menacing graffiti. Campus authorities immediately launched an investigation, which exposed two black students as the perpetrators. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against the Fake Noosers.

—Kansas State University, 2017. A paroxysm of protest struck K-State after someone reported a noose hanging from a tree on campus. Black students lambasted authorities for not acting quickly enough. They stoked anger online with the hashtag #DontLeaveUsHanging and demanded increased security. But the “noose” was made of cut pieces of nylon parachute cord, which police believed had been discarded by someone who “may have simply been practicing tying different kinds of knots.”

—Michigan State University, 2017. When a student reported a noose hanging outside her dorm room, MSU administrators went into full freakout mode over the racial incident. Cops and the Office of Institutional Equity were immediately notified. “A noose is a symbol of intimidation and threat that has a horrendous history in America,” the university president bemoaned. But it turned out the “noose” was a “packaged leather shoelace” that someone had dropped accidentally.

—Smithsonian museums, 2017. NPR called the discovery of “nooses” lying on the grounds of two Smithsonian Institution museums the “latest in a string of hate incidents” after Trump’s election. The African-American museum director called them a “reminder of America’s dark history.”

But the museums refused to release surveillance video and my public records request filed last November yielded zero corroboration of any hate crime. The Washington Post, New York Times, and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” which all splashed the story front and center, have yet to follow up.

—Mississippi State Capitol, 2018. ABC, CBS, CNN, and Yahoo were among the media outlets that blared headlines about seven nooses and “hate signs” found hanging in trees by the capitol building before a special runoff election for U.S. Senate. The stories created an unmistakable impression that the nooses were left by GOP racists intending to intimidate black voters. In truth, the nooses were a publicity stunt perpetrated by Democrats.

In the wake of Smollett’s folly, media sensationalists bluster that there’s no way they could have known they were being strung along. Thanks for the valuable admission, elite news professionals, that you are not only dumb and blind but incompetent to boot. It doesn’t take a fancy journalism degree to learn from the long, sordid history of Fake Noose:

New Poll: Majority of Voters Want a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Attempted Coup Against Trump

Earlier this week fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who served as acting director after James Comey was fired in May 2017, made headlines when he alleged meetings took place at the Department of Justice about ousting President Trump from office.

.@ScottPelleyon what McCabe told @60Minutes: “There were meetings at the Justice Department at which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the United States under the 25th Amendment.” pic.twitter.com/iVAyrEV4MF

Now according to a new Rasmussen Report,the majority of voters believe crimes were likely committed by DOJ and FBI officials and they want a special prosecutor to investigate.

Most voters say top Justice Department and FBI officials are likely to have acted criminally when they secretly discussed removing President Trump from office and think a special prosecutor is needed to investigate.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe senior federal law enforcement officials are likely to have broken the law in their discussions in May 2017 to oust Trump, with 37% who say it is Very Likely. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 36% consider that unlikely, with 19% who say it’s Not At All Likely that they broke the law.

Fifty-one percent (51%) think a special prosecutor should be named to investigate the discussions among senior Justice Department and FBI officials in May 2017 to remove the president from office. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree, but 11% are undecided.

President Trump is enraged over the revelations and took to Twitter earlier this week to slam McCabe and outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught…..

….There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous “insurance policy” in full action!

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, the Tonight Show, Facebook “friends”, Twitter “users”, Al Sharpton, Nancy Pelosi, nearly ALL the Democratic Presidential Candidates, and other “news” sources lied to America and YOU again with the false narrative that white male Trump supporters are racists. Remember what just happened with the Covington Catholic Students? Why do they keep doing this? Is this honest, fair or right? Why would you believe them in the future? Do they not want to admit that the United States is the most racially tolerant nation on earth? Know the truth and stop believing their lies that 62 million of your fellow citizens are racist. They are not!

Four below zero — that’s how cold it was at 2 a.m. in Chicago on Jan. 29, when actor Jussie Smollett claims he was the victim of a racist, homophobic hate crime perpetrated by two white Trump supporters. There were many reasons to be skeptical of Smollett’s story, but the fact that Chicago was experiencing a “polar vortex” of arctic cold was high on the list of doubts. Even if you could believe that two right-wingers would be stalking a not-very-famous actor in downtown Chicago, waiting for a chance to attack him on his way back from a wee-hours trip to a sandwich shop, why would they be doing this in -4°F weather?

Smollett’s story never made sense, and it came completely unraveled last week after Chicago police apprehended two of the Empire actor’s friends when they flew into O’Hare Airport, returning from a trip to Nigeria. According to reports by Chicago’s WBBM-TV and other outlets, brothers Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo were paid $3,500 by Smollett to stage the fake hate crime. Police have not yet filed any charges or given an official explanation of exactly what happened, and Smollett’s attorneys issued a statement Saturday asserting his innocence, but there is now every reason to believe that the whole thing was a complete hoax. If this proves to be the case, will any of the liberals who rushed to exploit Smollett’s tale face any consequences for smearing Trump supporters?

Consider, for example, what Stephen Colbert did on The Late Show. Two days after Smollett claimed he was attacked, Colbert invited lesbian actress Ellen Page onto the CBS program to blame the Trump administration, and particularly Vice President Mike Pence, for “what happened the other day to Jussie.” After describing Pence’s conservative policies as having “hurt LGBTQ people so badly,” Page said: “Connect the dots. This is what happens if you are in a position of power and you hate people and you want to cause suffering to them — you go through the trouble, you spend your career trying to cause suffering, what do you think is going to happen?” This was either deliberate slander, or evidence of insuperable stupidity, but neither Colbert nor Page have acknowledged any error, because they don’t have to. Presumably, the advertisers and executives at CBS have no problem paying Colbert to falsely blame Republicans for a “hate crime” that turns out to be a hoax, and Page knows that every liberal in Hollywood will applaud her “courage” for insulting the vice president.

Anyone with common sense could see that Jussie Smollett’s story didn’t add up, but evidently none of the Democrats running for president in 2020 has any common sense. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris used almost identical language in proclaiming Smollett the victim of “an attempted modern-day lynching.” Former Vice President Joe Biden declared: “We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts.” Smollett was the victim of “the latest of too many hate crimes against LGBTQ people and people of color,” said New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, adding: “We are all responsible for condemning this behavior and every person who enables or normalizes it.” Other leading Democrats joined this chorus of condemnation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the “racist, homophobic attack… an affront to our humanity,” while New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez asserted that the attack on Smollett was indicative of “the rise of hate crimes.” No Democrat more explicitly pointed the finger of blame than California Rep. Maxine Waters who said “this is happening for a reason.… It’s coming from the President of the United States. He’s dog-whistling every day.”

If the incident which provoked all these denunciations proves to be a hoax, however, will any of these Democrats apologize? Will they suffer any actual consequences for being so disastrously wrong about what happened to Jussie Smollett? No, don’t be silly. Liberal journalists won’t ask Booker, Harris, Biden, or other Democrats to explain why they were so easily deceived. Indeed, the media are already trying to spin the story to rescue Democrats. CNN’s Brian Stelter claimed Saturday that the real problem is that “random websites” had “weaponized” the story, whatever that means. Stelter went on to say of the Smollett hoax that “the motive here is still a mystery at the heart of the story.” Except it’s not really mysterious: Smollett has repeatedly declared his hatred of President Trump, and what better way to damage the president than to frame Republicans for a fake hate crime? And liberal journalists were eager to act as Smollett’s accomplices, as Daily Wire’s Ashe Schow remarked Sunday: “This is absolutely about the media and their constant desire to prove Orange Man Bad no matter how implausible the story.”

Meanwhile, in Chicago, WBBM-TV’s Charlie De Mar continues diligently reporting the story, with the latest development being that Smollett himself paid for the rope with which he claimed to be “lynched” by the Osundairo brothers. Sources told WBBM-TV that the rope — a clothesline, actually — was purchased at the Crafty Beaver Hardware Store the weekend before the Jan. 29 incident: “The brothers told detectives the three men rehearsed the attack days prior to it happening.” If Smollett is found to have filed a false police report, he could reportedly face up to three years in prison under Illinois law. Because of the hate-crime implications of the case, however, the FBI has also been involved in the investigation, and lying to the FBI could land Smollett in federal prison. But that’s mere speculation at this point, as law-enforcement authorities are not saying much officially, most of the reporting is on a “sources said” basis, and Smollett’s lawyers continue to maintain his innocence.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” as the Ninth Commandment declares, and it would be a breach of that divine law to declare Smollett guilty of a hoax without certain proof. If we can believe what has been reported so far, however, it would appear Smollett himself had no qualms about bearing false witness against others — namely the 62.9 million Americans who voted for President Trump. Liberals are always willing to believe the very worst about Republican voters, and the apparent hate-crime hoax in Chicago looks like an effort to manufacture evidence to encourage that belief.

Common-sense skepticism is our best defense against the myths created by what Trump likes to call the “fake news” media. Maybe next time, they’ll get away with it, but this latest debacle, coming on the heels of the Left’s debunked smear of the Covington Catholic boys, has only further eroded the credibility of the president’s enemies. It’s gonna be four below zero in Hell before we trust them again.

Talking with people in DC last night to try and understand what really is in the budget bill, and not in the budget bill, and what that means to our agenda to close the border, and how it relates to the declaration of a National Emergency this is what I can share with you:

• Make no mistake that everything you are upset with concerning this bill is the fault of the REPUBLICANS not the Democrats. Trump was put in the horrible position of signing this bill because Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell made sure that the wall was not funded when “Republicans” held the House and Senate the past two years.

• The Top Line for the President is that Nancy Pelosi said Trump would get $1 for the Border Wall and he got $1.3 Billion. That money keeps the wall building going while they fight for the rest of the spending in the courts.

• The restrictions in the Budget Bill on the type of wall and location of Wall ONLY applies to the $1.3 Billion – NOT funds from other departments available under the National Emergency.

• The attempt to use children to allow illegal “relatives” to claim unaccompanied minors at the border and thus preventing them from being deported themselves will be “interpreted” by DHS in a very strict manner that will NOT result in a rush on the border or significant increase in illegal immigration.

• The limitation on funding for beds and border guards can be overcome by other actions – for instance using military on the border.

• Not ALL of the National Emergency funds are able to be challenged in Court.

• They believe that they can get the legal challenges expedited to the Supreme Court so the Wall Building will not be delayed for years.

• Many really bad things were NOT in the Budget Bill, that Dems tried to get into it. For instance a terrible violence against Women’s Act was considered, the pay raise for Federal Workers was reduced, and the plan to reimburse government contractors for losses from the shutdown did not get in. I am trying to get a list of those that I can pass on to you later.

These are the things I have been told, and believe to be true, but no one really knows because no one actually has had time to look at ALL of the detail. Which is another thing you need to be angry about. This was no accident that a 1,100 page bill was dropped on the Congress and the President with 24 hours notice. They wanted to make sure that YOU and I had ZERO opportunity to weigh-in on this piece of garbage. The President needs to learn to not let them put him in this box. He should have declared on Monday or Tuesday, either you have the full bill on my desk for review on Wednesday or it is an automatic veto. He didn’t and they used the oldest political trick in the book to screw us all – again.

Let me be clear, this Budget Bill is a disgrace and does not represent any interests of the American people. It represents the interests of K-Street and the Koch Brothers and Big Tech and ruling class and the need for voters for the Democrat/Socialist Party. This bill is DESIGNED to HAMPER the ability of the President, and the Border Patrol and ICE to stop illegal immigration into our nation. The people in Congress don’t give a damn about you and your family or your community. These illegal will not be coming to their communities, they will not be flooding their schools, they will not be using their hospitals, and they will not be taking jobs from their sons and daughters. They don’t care that these illegals suppress your wages, raise your taxes, and assaults the very fabric of American society where people living here want to be Americans and are not just here to take your money.

Now, let’s deal with the reality of our situation. The President had no option but to sign this Budget Bill, many did not notice that the head of the TSA or Air Traffic Controllers Union said on Tuesday, they would shut down air travel that day if their was another government shutdown. Meaning, Democrats have no problem purposely hurting the American people to get their way. They do it every day and unfortunately we keep letting them do it. As the map below will show there is a lot of border wall already built and this Budget Bill will add to it and the Declaration of a National Emergency will do even more in the long term. The war goes on, this was not a victory nor was it a defeat, it was another bloody battle in a long war – unfortunately an ever escalating civil war that may have no winners.

No one should believe for a second that if we are forced to vote for “Republican” House Members in 2020 to take back the US House that a “Republican” controlled Congress will do anything to help this President. Understand “Our” Government is NOT “OUR” Government. It is separate from We the People. Watch carefully this interview between Tucker Carlson and J.D. Vance where Vance explains that the establishment of the Republican party HATE YOU as much or more as they hate Trump! Unless Trump finally wakes up and understands that he must stop supporting the “Republicans” who are destroying him and our nation, we will lose our nation. It was “Republican” John McCain who pushed the illegitimate “Steele Dossier”, it was “Republican” Jeff Sessions who allowed the ILLEGAL Mueller Investigation to begin with NO CRIME, it was “Republicans” who allowed the “Special Counsel” to go on and on threatening the President with Impeachment if he fired Sessions or did anything to defend himself, and it was Paul Ryan who would not allow Congress to issue subpoenas to force the criminals in the DOJ and FBI to turn over the documents. Got it? The Democrats are not the problem, the “Republicans” are the problem because of their corrupt party system, corrupt primaries, and corrupt relationship with monied special interests.

Let me conclude by saying that our nation is at a critical tipping point. The three most important issues of our time are to be decided in the weeks and month and years ahead. Are we a sovereign nation that allows immigration into our nation only for those who will assimilate and become Americans or not? Are we a nation that is ruled by laws, not men, in that we are all entitled to equal justice and equal protection under the laws in our Constitution or not? Are we a nation that will allow the murder of children and the elderly for the convenience of the state and other individuals or do we believe in the Right to Life from conception to death as is the very basis for our founding principles? You and I, for the most part, are going to decide these issues in our life times. It will take much more than standing back and watching President Trump stand alone against all the forces of evil in this world. He will not decide what because or our nation, your and my efforts will decide, and may God have mercy on our souls if we fail to do our duty to our forefathers and future generations by squandering the most precious gift available to our species – FREEDOM!

Where Border Wall has Already been Built:

Ohio AG Dave Yost Steps Up to Protect Christian and Conservatives

Below you will see a letter from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to the FBI office in Kentucky that is handling the investigation into the threats made against the Covington Catholic student, parents and community members. AG Yost is offering to look into any threats against Ohio residents and any threats made by Ohio residents. On August 15, 2016, Ohio’s telecommunications harassment statute was amended to criminalize “knowingly post[ing] a text or audio statement or an image [online] for the purpose of abusing, threatening, or harassing another person.” Ohio Rev. Code § 2917.21 (b) (2). This law was amended specifically to stop the kind of threats and bulling of which the Covington Catholic students have been subjected.

While an independent investigation this week cleared the Covington Students of any wrong doing in this incident, and private law suits are going to be filed – that is not enough. We as a society must reject the actions and methods used by the Left against these innocent student, and all of us, to silence Christians, Conservatives and Trump supporters by seeing the perpetrators prosecuted for their crimes. We DEMAND, and are entitled to under the U.S. and our State Constitutions, “equal protection under the law” and “equal justice under the law” and right now we are not getting either of them. That must change NOW. Any person residing in Ohio who attacked these students should be charged under this Ohio law and we expect Attorney General Yost to do that.

We look forward to having these criminals publicly identified and prosecuted in the week and month ahead. I personally thank all of you who called the Attorney General’s office and the FBI and DOJ to demand that we get the justice we deserve!

Multiple videos of Covington Catholic students interacting with a Native American elder and a group of Black Hebrew Israelites went viral in January after the national March for Life in Washington D.C. Jan. 18 The investigation breaks down the videos and highlights interviews with parents and students who were present at the incident.

“The immediate world-wide reaction to the initial video led almost everyone to believe that our students had initiated the incident and the perception of those few minutes of video became reality,” Foys said in the letter to parents. “In truth, taking everything into account, our students were placed in a situation that was at once bizarre and even threatening.”

Foys said the reaction of the students was expected and “one might even say laudatory.”

More than 40 students were interviewed, as well as some of the 16 chaperones who went to D.C. Nick Sandmann, a Covington Catholic student featured in the video, and Nathan Phillips, the Native American man who approaches the crowd of students, were not interviewed in the investigation.

“We have nothing more to add,” a statement to local media said.

Here’s what the investigation found:

No evidence was found that students performed a “Build the Wall” chant or made racist remarks to the Black Hebrew Israelites or Phillips

Most of the students felt like (Phillips) was coming into their group to join in with the students’ cheers, investigators said. None of the students said they felt threatened by Phillips and many stated they were “confused.”

Video shows that some students performed a “tomahawk chop” to the beat of Phillips’ drumming and some joined in with his chant.

Nine chaperones reported being present at the Lincoln Memorial when the main interactions took place. Investigators said video confirms at least five chaperones were present.

Chaperones said they didn’t feel that students were in danger or threatened.

In regards to the “It’s not rape if you enjoy it” video, investigators said the man in the video was not a Covington Catholic student.

In regards to the 7-second video of two students making comments to two women, investigators said they could not determine if the students were from Covington Catholic.

A federal legal system that is accountable to no one or to the rule of law is the application of silent tyranny upon We the People. Support Sharyl Attkisson because her fight against the Obama Administration and the “Deep State” is OUR FIGHT for Equal Justice Under the Law – and Equal Protection Under the Law from the Tyranny of the State!

by CHQ Staff

We Americans like to believe we live in a free country with the right to use the justice system to ensure that government abuses are stopped or redressed. Award-winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has learned that’s far from the truth, and it’s an awful thing to experience first-hand.

A federal appeals court recently heard oral arguments in Sharyl Attkisson’s lawsuit against former Attorney General Eric Holder, unnamed “John Doe” federal agents at the FBI and Justice Department, and others. At issue are the intrusions into her computers while she worked as an investigative reporter for CBS News, revealed by multiple forensic investigations showing use of proprietary government surveillance programs.

In a recent article forRealClearPolitics, Ms. Attkisson said it was clear early on that the Justice Department was not interested in investigating or prosecuting its own. So she began the search to find the facts about the invasion into her computers and life. That morphed into a lawsuit for damages, because that’s what the law sets out as the legal remedy.

It’s been a long and frightening lesson, said Ms. Attkisson, because the government has the benefit of endless time and taxpayer funds to delay and obstruct.

The rules seem rigged to protect government lawlessness, and the playing field is uneven as she discovered. After years without turning over a single document in response to dozens of Attkisson’s subpoenas, the government now argues that her case should be dismissed, in part, because she hasn’t learned the names of the “John Doe” federal agents to insert in the lawsuit; names which only the government knows and has refused to divulge.

In short, the government withheld the names, and now argues the lawsuit should end because Attkisson and her attorneys haven’t learned the names. That effectively prohibits citizens from obtaining justice when the government is the lawbreaker.

Appeals Court judges who heard the government’s argument in the case seemed incredulous at that logic, but that doesn’t mean Ms. Attkisson will prevail.

One would think that the Trump Department of Justice would be anxious to purge such egregious anti-constitutional behavior attributable to the Obama administration, but a vicious cycle has arisen: Ms. Attkisson’s legal team has to attribute these abuses to specific people by name. Yet they can identify the perpetrators only through the legal “discovery process,” which the government is fighting each step of the way.

As Ms. Attkisson noted in an interview with Elise Cooper for The American Thinker, “What was done is a crime because there apparently was no FISA warrant, which is required to spy on a U.S. citizen.The DOJ is not making any attempt to find out who in the government was involved, and they are preventing me from also finding out.”

What Americans need to understand is that just because the presidency changed from President Obama to President Trump, that does not mean that career government employees change Cooper and Attkisson explained. “I am fighting the bad actors at the DOJ who are still protecting people and who are still obstructing this suit. Many everyday workers and bureaucrats do not change from one administration to the next. They are often the ones who basically run the government, these faceless people. They are the ones that decide what information filters up and down. In this respect, it does not matter who is president.”

Ms. Attkisson went on to tell Cooper, “We are arguing violations of the 4th and 1st Amendments and that of the Telecommunications Act. There are free press and privacy issues. A GoFundMe pagehas been set up by a diverse group of bipartisan supporters that include conservatives, liberals, and civil rights activists.”

What is even more remarkable is that Ms. Attkisson has had to go it alone in her battle against government surveillance and intrusion into her computer. None of the big press freedom, freedom of expression or civil liberties organizations have gotten in the fray on her side.

Although Ms. Attkisson’s supporters are bipartisan believers in press freedom and constitutional liberty, the obvious inference one should draw from that is the national press and civil liberties organizations are unwilling to take the case or assist Sharyl Attkisson because it involves wrongdoing by the Obama administration.

One reason Sharyl’s case is so important is because there are likely more cases like hers that have gone undiscovered: Internal emails at the “shadow CIA” company Stratfor, and disclosed by WikiLeaks, imply a larger effort.

If these violations go unanswered and unpunished, government attacks on journalists and citizens will be left, unchallenged, to expand. Sharyl’s lawsuit has important Constitutional and freedom implications for every American. She is courageously proceeding — really on behalf of all Americans.

That is why a group of individual believers in constitutional liberty have stepped up to support Ms. Attkisson through a GoFundMe campaign.

CHQ is participating in this effort because we believe this is an extremely important case about the limits and consequences of government spying on Americans’ personal and work computers, and is being watched by many. It is in the public interest to seek accountability. It is at our own peril that we give up on the old-fashioned free press and privacy notions set forth in our Constitution.

We urge all CHQ readers and friends to visit Sharyl Attkisson’s GoFundMe pageand make your most generous contribution to expose the Obama administration’s wrongdoing and to identify the Deep State operatives behind it.

DEMAND THAT OHIO AG DAVE YOST PROVIDE EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW TO CONSERVATIVES!

My Fellow Patriots,

Over two weeks ago Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was presented with the letter below and asked to LEAD an effort to get other State’s Attorney Generals, and the FBI and DOJ, to do their jobs and FINALLY provide conservatives and Christians and Trump supporters with their Constitutionally GUARANTEED rights to “equal protection under the law” and “equal justice under the law”. All we asked Dave Yost to do is, enforce Ohio’s laws against anyone who broke those laws in attacking the Covington Catholic students, show a little leadership and edit the letter we provided and then send it around to ask other State’s Attorney Generals to join him, and let the FBI and DOJ know that we EXPECT them to use the full force or federal law to protect and defend these students. Read the letter and then tell me why that is asking to much?

Then tell me why I even have to write such a letter to suggest that the Attorney General we just elected do his job and investigate if any Ohio citizens made those threats against the Covington Catholic student’s, their parents, others in their community and their school since Covington Catholic is just across the Ohio river from Cincinnati. Perhaps the AG did not get the message, even though at least two people specifically told me they forwarded it to him two weeks ago. If you agree that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost should take the lead in PROVING that conservatives, Christians and Trump voters are entitled to and will get “equal protection under the law” then perhaps you will want to contact his office and asking him why he hasn’t yet done that:

Contact Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and ask him to investigate these online threats to see if any of them came from Ohio Citizens.
Call the Ohio Attorney General: 800-282-0515
Contact the Ohio AG online: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/About-AG/Contact

Why Civil Law Suits are NOT Enough:

While we certainly support the massive number of law suits that are going to be filed in this case, it is not enough for these criminals to be targeted by private law suits. The people who are consistently, unfairly, and illegally attacking us need to know that society as a whole rejects their actions and methods, not just we as Christians and Conservatives, but all of society. The only way to make that clear is for our government, which is supposed to enforce the rules we all agree upon as a society, enforces our laws upon those who break those laws.

Right now, the regressive communist/socialist Democrat Left believe that society is on their side, because up until now law enforcement has not stopped them. It is up to people we elect, like Ohio AG Dave Yost, to enforce the rule of law EQUALLY. That is NOT HAPPENING and we cannot continue to just sit back and let the Left have open season to do anything they want to us. The question facing all of us is “Why would the left stop targeting us if they face no consequences for doing so?” We must make sure that they suffer consequences for these actions – not just the common people but Hollywood elites, elected officials, members of the media, and corporate leaders. That is Dave Yost’s job and he needs to do his job! Please take whatever action you feel is appropriate to ensure that your rights and OUR rights are protected!

We need to share this story with the “Republican” Suburban College Educated women who voted Democrat in the 2018 midterms: The Democrat Left will do this to your husbands, sons, fathers and brothers! They need to vote Trump in 2020!

Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in before testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, DC, U.S., September 27, 2018. Win McNamee/Pool via REUTERS – RC14DED657D0

Conservative parents look at liberal hate and think, “They could do that to my son.”

Over the last 72 hours, I’ve been asking myself a simple question: What would happen if a group of Black Israelites had spent an hour taunting my son’s high-school football team? How would they have reacted if a Native American elder had walked into their midst – apparently not saying anything intelligible to them, but rather banging a drum and chanting inches from one kid’s face. Would they have thought that was an effort at “peacemaking,” or just more taunting? What would they have said if some of the people walking with that elder had yelled insults at them?

I ask those questions, but I’m pretty sure I know the answer. The boys wouldn’t have reacted all that differently from the kids at Covington Catholic. They would have sung different songs, they would have chanted different chants, and maybe one or two of the kids would have lofted an obscene gesture in the direction of the Black Israelites. In other words, they would have been kids, and barring some sort of overt criminal act, the blame for any tension that followed should rest with the adults who behaved so aggressively and strangely (and, let’s face it, walking through a group of boys chanting and banging a drum is not exactly normal behavior). If a kid responds poorly to a challenging situation, you reprimand him. You teach him.

But this is America in 2019, and it’s full of rage and hate. And parents of young men know that hostile people would instead want to destroy your child’s life. They would want to destroy your own livelihood. They would wish violence on him and you. They would try to destroy your school, and they would mock your faith. And then, even when their rage is proven to be unfounded, they would spend days hunting through your background and your school’s history to try to find some reason to hate you anyway.

Earlier today, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tweeted this:

He’s exactly right. So long as the Covington Catholic story remains in the news – so long as activists continue to comb through internet archives and social media to try to damn the school, its students, and parents to social-justice hell – this story is Brett Kavanaugh, the sequel. And here’s why, as summed up in a tweet from Bethany Mandel:

In the Kavanaugh case, conservative men and women looked at decades-old, uncorroborated allegations, the unquestioning acceptance of those claims, and the furious effort to destroy a man’s reputation and career – even by passing along the wildest and most implausible claims – and thought, “That could be me” or “that could be my husband.”

Now, these same people look at the reaction to the Covington Catholic kids and think, “That could be my son.”

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You can hold that fear in your heart without excusing or condoning sexual assault in any way. You can hold that fear in your heart without excusing or condoning racism or even thoughtless taunts. Because you’ll know that for all too many people, the truth doesn’t really matter. You’re a symbol, not a person. When angry people cook that social-justice omelet, they break eggs not with regret but with angry glee.

Yes, I know the “whatabouts.” I know the habit of some people on the right to immediately hunt through the pasts of even dead black men and boys to find some evidence they were a bad person, even if those facts aren’t relevant to the case at hand. I’ve seen the supposedly incriminating pictures of young black men passed around social media as if they’re evidence when they’re not. I know about cases like the Central Park Five.

I also know that practice is horrible. I know that it’s evil. And I understand why black parents worry that their kid could be next – and live in fear of something far more deadly than social media shame campaigns or lost jobs.

But the existence of that fear – and the reality of those cases – does not justify in any way a decision to intentionally inflict fear and pain on your political enemies. And when you are found to be wrong, when snap judgments go awry, the proper response is to apologize (as some of my colleagues have done). We’re human. We make mistakes. The proper response is not to double down in digging for dirt, hoping and praying that you’ll find some reason to justify your initial rage. When activists and partisans do that, they send a clear message to their opponents: They will destroy you if they can.

That’s the message that sent a shudder up the spine of husbands and wives during the Kavanaugh hearings. That’s the message that sends a shudder up the spine of moms and dads as we watch men and women try to ruin the Covington Catholic kids. This isn’t just a media scandal. When we see the hate, some of us see our sons, and we know that in America today, their futures, their reputations, and – given the prevalence of death threats – perhaps even their very lives are in the hands of an angry mob.

It’s that concern for our kids that makes Chris Hayes correct. After initial missteps, the Right is largely united. There exists out there a level of hate – and an eagerness to believe the worst – that not one of us should tolerate, and that not one of us should visit upon our foes.

DAVID FRENCH — David French is a senior writer for National Review, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. @davidafrench